(585bn) An Improved Catalyst Deactivation Protocol on Commercial FCC Catalysts for Higher Conversion of Residual Feedstock

It is often a challenging task to select fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts from various manufactures as it directly related to huge investment and expensive operating process. To achieve this task, a proper test protocol is mandatory to replicate the products yield pattern as close as to the respective commercial FCC units ^1-5. Few standard protocols are available in open literature and however development or improvement on existing deactivation protocols is deemed mandatory for high conversion of residual feedstock and improved yield pattern of the products for both commercial and environmental view point. This work demonstrates the improved deactivation protocol on commercial FCC catalysts for high conversion of residue feedstock and enhanced yield on products selectivity over standard deactivation method. Fresh catalyst samples from 4 different manufacturers were subjected to CMD (Cyclic Metal Deactivation) to achieve the targeted metal contamination by mixing known concentration of non-aqueous metal naphthenates (Ni, V) with TAKREER atmospheric residue. The improved deactivation study was carried out for 45 cycles under identical conditions, whereas each cycle consists of cracking, stripping and regeneration. In the improved deactivation method, cracking was carried out at 650 °C and both stripping and regeneration was carried out at 805 °C and these catalysts are subjected to hydrothermal treatment in presence of 98 % steam and 2% N₂ at 780 °C for 20 h at the end of each cycle. The same fresh catalysts were also prepared by standard deactivation protocol. All the prepared catalysts were well characterized by XRD, Nitrogen sorption analysis, TEM and acidity measurements. The catalytic evaluation studies were carried out in a fluidized bed (ACE R+MM, KT Inc, USA) unit using TAKREER atmospheric residue feedstock for the catalysts deactivated by standard method, improved method and Refinery E-cat. It was found that the catalysts prepared by improved deactivation protocol offers 4 to 7% higher conversion than standard method deactivation catalysts and E-cat for a given Cat-to-Oil ratio. In addition, this improved method deactivated catalysts exhibited better yield patterns on product selectivities over standard method and E-cat samples. The major products obtained are Propylene, C₄ Olefins, LPG, Gasoline, LCO and Coke. A thorough catalytic evaluation performance study was carried out to optimize higher conversion and better product selectivities.

Keywords: Catalyst deactivation, cracking, stripping, CMD, FCC

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